WORDS: SARAH JOSEPH
Ethical Soles
What inspired you to partner on the launch of VEJA? SK: Ghislain and I met when we were 14 years old. We graduated with an economics degree and then eventually started working in New York and Washington DC straight after. After a few months of working in banks, we decided that this was not the life we wanted. We started an NGO and travelled around the world for a year, while going on a field trip to study 70 projects. We went to China, Brazil, India, Bolivia, Vietnam, Australia and many more places to
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analyse projects and improve them when it came to reducing pollution, respecting the environment and enhancing social conditions of the local population. After seeing it first hand in the field, that actions did not follow words from companies, eventually at the age of 25 we decided to create a project that would be based on action, not words. Hence, VEJA was born. The brand was established in 2005, how has the retail market/brand grown changed since then? SK: We are not looking for fast
growth, we focus on creating deep roots. Since 2005, VEJA has been growing organically, step by step, without investors. We source and control every raw material and the processes within our production chain so it takes time, but we are sure that it is the best way in order to create a positive impact. Today, VEJA has over 200 talented people in Paris, New York, and Brazil. We’ve bought more than 390 tons of organic cotton; 450 tons of Amazonian rubber and we’ve sold more than 4.5 million pairs globally. What is the core DNA of VEJA? SK: The core of VEJA since its inception is to know everything about our sneakers from the agroecological and organic cotton fields in Brazil and Peru, to the mud of the Amazonian forest where we buy our rubber from seringueiros (rubber tappers living in the forest who collect latex from the rubber trees). We spend months and months in the factories where we produce our sneakers, and we have a team in Brazil that visits them every day, while we’ve also managed to build a strong relationship with our suppliers. This is why we can say that ecology is not a burden for a company, but a strength. To understand sustainability, you need to meet people, spend time with them to understand their difficulties and find solutions together. Design is just as important as sustainability – were these both clear focuses for the brand from the outset? SK: VEJA is walking on two feet: ecology and social justice on one side, design on the other. We never compromise between the two of them. A lot of our clients don’t know what is behind the brand, which is not a problem for us. A lot
IMAGES: SUPPLIED
Founders Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion of eco-conscious brand VEJA, share their secret to success
FAS H I O N
3/1/21 2:21 PM
